Editor’s note: You can listen to my conversation with Chuck Burr by clicking on the Soundcloud file embedded in this blog.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Testing Ag Performance Solutions farm management competition is now in its third year.

The TAPS competition allows participants to make management decisions for a small, irrigated plot at the West Central Research and Extension Center near North Platte — including hybrid selection and planting population, nitrogen, irrigation, crop insurance, and marketing.

Last year, the program added an irrigated sorghum competition. For 2019, a subsurface drip irrigated corn competition was added.

In the latest Down in the Weeds, we visit with Chuck Burr, Nebraska Extension educator at the West Central Research and Extension Center, to discuss the 2019 TAPS program. While it's still early in the growing season, Burr notes there are more options to choose from in hybrid selection this year.

"We've got quite a few hybrids that were selected, especially in the sorghum competition,” Burr says. “A year ago, we had two hybrids that were selected by the participants. This year, I think we've got 10 different sorghum hybrids selected.

“So, there's quite a bit of variability there in terms of what they're looking at. It’s a pretty big range in terms of costs from the low to high on a bag of sorghum seed and a bag of corn seed, so I think they're really taking a look at that and trying to be as low a cost of producer as they can — to keep the cost down but also have top-end yield potential."